I routinely avoid superlatives, like “best”, when dealing with programmers, engineers, and other left-brain dominant people. Far too often, a word like that becomes a huge diversion with heated discussions centering on the topic of what is the singularly best practice. It’s like that old saying, the enemy of the good is the best. Too much time is wasted searching for the best practice when there is clearly a better practice right in front of you.

A “ruthlessly helpful” practice is my pragmatist’s way of saying, let’s pick a new or different practice today because we know it pays dividends. Over time, iteratively and incrementally, that incumbent practice can be replaced by a better practice, until then the team and organization reaps the rewards.

As for the title of book, I originally named it “Ruthlessly Helpful .NET”. The book became part of an Apress professional series, and the title “Pro .NET Best Practices” fits in with a prospective reader and booksellers’ expectations for books in that series.